The UMD Food Co-op

Eating fast food for lunch is no longer a worry for me. My friends and I have discovered the Maryland Co-op. Or what we call the coop. We’ve been going there everyday for lunch since we came across it. It’s basically a lunch bar run by students. They sell many supermarket products such as bars, cereal, milk, bagels, but also freshly prepared foods like sushi, noodles, and burritos. Aside from already made food, they have a sandwich bar where you can design your own sandwich. They have a wide variety of sliced bread, tortilla wraps, pita bread, and bagels. You choose your bread and add whatever spreads, vegetables, meat and cheeses you want. Each kind of filling costs a different sum. For example, carrots cost 20 cents, mushrooms cost 30 cents and soy cheese costs 40 cents. My friends and I have gotten many sundried tomato wraps. They typically cost about $2.50 each which is a great deal for a satisfying lunch. The other day, I managed to make a sandwich that only cost $1.05. I was quite impressed and treated myself to a Fruit pop. The sandwich tasted delicious too; however, my friends said it was “too green.” Today, I had a sundried tomato wrap with bean sprouts, mustard, Tofurky, soy cheese, green peppers, and onions. It cost $2.30 and it was more than worth it. I heated it up today in the Co-op’s microwave to melt the cheese. I love the Coop not only because you can get good food at cheap prices, but also because you have the power to create your own meal.

Everyday, the students at the coop cook up different hot foods such as curry, casserole, and soup. They sell the hot food by weight at $4.99 per pound. I’ve tried some of their stew and it was delicious, but I still prefer to make my own sandwich.

I love the atmosphere inside the coop. One kind guy in particular even remembers me and my friends. The people there are all so kind and patient when you make your sandwich choices. I would love to work at the food coop in my future college (fingers crossed that they have one!)